Truck Camper Travel (09-14-14)

When we decided to “do Alaska”, we did a bunch of research and decided that for us, it made more sense to travel in a truck camper rather than our large 5th wheel.

Originally the reasoning was that the roads in Alaska and Canada are rough and can rattle apart a trailer and I didn't want our home rattling apart.  We actually didn't think the roads were as bad as we were led to believe.

As it turns out, the benefits of a camper were different, but even better than we imagined.  By traveling in a truck camper, we were able to travel down dozens of roads that we would never have attempted in the trailer, allowing us to see things we would have missed and enabling us to camp, usually for free, in the middle of nowhere, with spectacular scenery all around us.

For the first week, I was a little leery about the small space, but we got used to it pretty quickly.  Well, most of us did. One of us still insists that the truck camper is too small, and looks forward to moving back into the 5th wheel.

Dozer was so desperate to get outside sometimes, he learned how to leap through the sliding portion of the screen door, if it was left open.  Not good- we’ve had to be extra careful to slide that shut or keep the main door closed.

We would never have made it to Prudhoe Bay with the trailer.  The mud and grime on that road were amazing…We actually built our own “storm windows” for the back door, so much dirt was getting through.

…. but setting foot in the Arctic Ocean was priceless.

Wrangell St. Elias National Park, our country’s largest, would have been difficult to explore in the 5th wheel. As it was, we spent 4 days exploring this park.










Denali Highway, one of my favorite places, would have been passable, but not as comfortable to drive in a 5th wheel.








When we first started out, we stayed mostly in campgrounds, but then we reached Alaska and there wasn’t any need for the formality of an RV park most of the time.  The onboard generator performed flawlessly, and with a push button start- it was so easy to use! 



One thing would have made life in the camper easier, less stressful for Paul, and would have allowed us to stay “off the grid” for longer time periods- a solar panel.  Every 4-5 days we stayed in an RV park so we could re-charge the batteries without running the generator for hours.

We took advantage of our small size to stay in smaller, (usually state or federal) more scenic, less expensive, campgrounds.

With a smaller refrigerator we had to do more meal planning and less impulse buying, but each time we loaded up, we had more than two weeks worth of meals available. Sometimes we needed it too- there are many places that don’t have grocery stores around every corner.

We loved always having our “stuff” with us.  I've said before, its a totally different way of traveling but easy to get used to.  We have full access to all our food, drink, and bathroom, all the time. If we “forgot” to bring a map into the truck, it was a simple process to pull over and get it.  Priceless!

We had some issues with the camper along the way.  It is 10 years old.  Both the bathroom vent and the bedroom skylight had parts break that had to be replaced or repaired.  The weather stripping needed to be replaced around the door and windows, but overall we had no major problems.







What we missed the most about the 5th wheel was the double paned windows, the 3 inch walls to keep out the moisture, and the recliners. I also missed the ability to make more complicated meals. With just a few pots and pans, we were somewhat limited in what we could make, and the weather was not conducive to cooking outside.



   Although we had plenty of clothes, I look forward to wearing the rest of my wardrobe! We each bought a T-shirt and a sweatshirt in Alaska.


Sometimes we missed the door that keeps the cat out of our bedroom (we don’t let him sleep with us) but he behaved better than we expected and rarely jumped on our faces at 3 AM.







Had we wanted to, we could have sold the camper in Alaska and made money on it, even after the money we put into it-but buying the biggest camper we could get paid off.  We have spent 4 months in it and are quite comfortable, so we’ll hang on to it and hopefully use it in the summers to make traveling easier.  I look forward to revisiting some of our national parks when we can actually stay IN the park!
We will, however, be picking up a solar panel in Oregon this week.